1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for communicating with a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag configured to conduct information transmission and reception via radio communication with an RFID tag capable of communication with the outside.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the case of article management, an RFID tag is disposed on an article to be managed, and an apparatus for communicating with an RFID tag that reads information held by the RFID tag in a non-contact manner is already known. A system using the apparatus for communicating with an RFID tag is referred to as a Radio Frequency Identification (hereinafter referred to as RFID) system.
In the RFID system, an RFID tag circuit element disposed in a label-shaped RFID tag, for example, is provided with an IC circuit part and a tag antenna. The IC circuit part stores predetermined RFID tag information. The tag antenna is connected to the IC circuit part and conducts information transmission and reception. Even if the RFID tag is stained or arranged at a hidden position, reading and writing of information with respect to the IC circuit part is capable with an apparatus antenna of the apparatus for communicating with an RFID tag. The RFID system has been already put into practice in various fields.
In article management using such an RFID system, a prior art reference relating to position detection of an article has been already proposed. In this prior art reference, an RFID tag circuit element for book is disposed on each of books to become position detection targets. Also, an RFID tag circuit element for shelf for giving position information is disposed on each shelf of a bookcase. A handheld reading device operated by an administrator of the books reads first tag identification information of the RFID tag circuit element for book disposed on each book in the bookcase sequentially from one side to the other side of the shelf. After that, when the reading reaches the end of the shelf, the reading device reads second tag identification information of the RFID tag circuit element for shelf. Then, these two types of tag identification information are both transmitted from the reading device to an operation terminal via radio communication. After that, the operation terminal associates the first tag identification information with the second tag identification information transmitted from the reading device as above through an appropriate operation by the administrator. As a result, book information such as names and contents of the books are associated with position information, that is, shelf information of the book and stored in a database.
In the above prior art reference, if an operator wants to know a storage position of a book, the following operation is needed. That is, by means of an operation of the operator, a terminal for operation accesses the database using the name of the book, for example, as a key. As a result, the first tag identification information of the RFID tag circuit element for book and the second tag identification information of the RFID tag circuit element for shelf corresponding to the first tag identification information are obtained. After that, by means of an appropriate operation by the operator, the terminal for operation transmits both the two pieces of the tag identification information to a handheld reading device via radio communication. The handheld reading device displays a location of the corresponding bookcase by a display device on the basis of the transferred second tag identification information. By means of this display, the handheld reading device guides the operator to a front of the bookcase. By means of the operation by the guided operator, the handheld reading device reads the second tag identification information from the RFID tag circuit element for shelf of the bookcase. As a result, the operator confirms that the bookcase is a correct intended one. After that, the operator specifies the first tag identification information corresponding to the book to be searched using the handheld reading device. The handheld reading device makes a search for each shelf of the bookcase on the basis of the specified first tag identification information. If the RFID tag circuit element for book provided with the first tag identification information is found, the handheld reading device makes corresponding position display. As a result, the location of the book to be searched can be notified to the operator.
As described above, the prior art reference requires many procedures such as input of the name of the book, for example, in the terminal for operation by the operator, transfer of the tag identification information from the terminal for operation to the handheld reading device, movement of the operator according to the bookcase display, confirmation by the operator of the reading of the second tag identification information, and search for each shelf of the bookcase by the handheld reading device using the first tag identification information. As a result, the operator needs extremely cumbersome many operations. In order to avoid this, there can be a method of directly searching the RFID tag circuit element for book without using the RFID tag circuit element for shelf. However, in this case, the handheld reading device performs reading one by one for each of the RFID tag circuit elements for book of the large number of books arranged on a plurality of shelves in a plurality of bookcases. In this case, it takes very long time to search for the targeted RFID tag circuit element for book, which was poor in efficiency.